Percival sat up straight in his chair, frowning. “But...we destroyed his base and his backing in the empire. What’s he gonna do now? Whatever he’s planning, won’t it take time?”
Satie took another deep breath and shut her eyes. “I don’t know. He wasn’t the type to just share his mind with the rest of the world.”
“Is it safe to assume that his current objective is to turn demons into humans?” Graham asked.
Satie nodded after a moment. “Yes. There were other things he was working on, but I think it all led towards that. Of course, I’m not sure if that was his ultimate objective or just another step in a grander plan...”
Satie’s shoulders quivered like she was having trouble breathing, and she shed a tear from one of her tightly clenched eyes. Belgrieve softly wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“Sorry,” said Graham apologetically. “I made you recall something painful.”
“No, it’s okay...” She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and took a deep breath. “But to be honest...there were a lot of painful parts I can still vividly remember.”
“Don’t push yourself. We don’t need to dredge up the details of those experiments. Things might be different if knowing those things could help us pin down Schwartz’s objective, but...even then, I wouldn’t force you,” Percival said, struggling to find the right words.
Satie smiled a bit. “Heh heh... I didn’t think you had it in you to be tactful.”
“Shut it.” Percival turned away, a sour expression on his face.
The mood had softened a bit, and refills were poured from the whistling teapot. Satie took a sip before continuing. “In any event, Schwartz wanted to perfect the transformation of demons into humans... I have no doubt that Ange was a successful trial. We’re lucky that Schwartz doesn’t know that...”
They’d only figured out that Angeline was Satie’s daughter after the battle at the capital. That was a conclusion derived from knowledge only Satie and Belgrieve could possess, so there was no way Schwartz could know.
“But...Ange grew up to be a good girl, as you all know. Doesn’t that mean that his plan is a failure? And even if he wanted to do something with her now, she’s pretty strong. She’s not gonna lose so easily,” Percival reasoned.
Almost everybody nodded, but Byaku still seemed dubious. “Should we be so optimistic? From the moment I met her, the demon Caim inside me recognized her as kindred to us. It wouldn’t be strange if Schwartz came to that conclusion on his own.”
Come to think of it, Byaku’s been pointing it out from the very start... The implications of his words had been so inconceivable back then that none of them had paid him much heed, but now he seemed very credible indeed.
Kasim scratched his head. “But you don’t know any more about it, right? If you connect to that demon’s mind for too long, it eats into you.”
“That’s true. I don’t know what the logic is behind her becoming a complete human. One thing I am certain of is that my demon feels envious of her.”
“Does that mean that Solomon’s demons...have a desire to become human?” Belgrieve wondered.
Byaku frowned. “I don’t know. Caim’s mind has descended into complete madness. Whenever I try to talk to him now, he ignores what I say and just tries to devour me and take over my body—that’s about it. I can’t get anything useful out of him anymore.”
Even with Graham and Kasim helping him out, that part still hadn’t improved. Indeed, even the backing of two living legends was not enough to appeal to a being created by the twisted archmage who had once ruled over the land.
Charlotte clenched her hands. “Samigina’s ring... It tried to consume me too.”
“Ultimately, the demons act only out of yearning for Solomon. They’ve got deep memories of the battle to conquer the land, so they think they need to defeat all enemies for him. That’s what I think,” Byaku said, taking a sip of tea.
Belgrieve twisted his beard. “What do you think, Graham?”
“That sounds plausible. I’ve faced a number of their kind before, and to me, it felt that fighting was an extension of their loyalty to their master. Hence why everything withered around them and fiends were drawn to their aid. I know little of the age of Solomon’s reign, but I imagine it must have been an ironclad rule, brooking not even the slightest resistance.”
“I think you’re right,” Satie said. “Before they were experimented on, the demons took on the forms of vague shadowy silhouettes, and I could feel an immense murderous intent from them. But rather than hostility, it was more like...a sense of duty.”
“So by making a demon into a human, he was able to contain that hankering for homicide?” Kasim asked.
“That was probably part of it...”
“But what then? His purpose is still unknown,” Percival said, crossing his arms.
That was the part that eluded them no matter how long they pondered the matter. The lantern’s flame flickered. Satie finished the rest of her tea and sighed. “The demons—or rather, Solomon’s homunculi—can take on all sorts of forms. You all know that, right?”
“Yeah. I’ve fought shape-shifting demons a number of times before,” Belgrieve said. Percival and Graham indicated they had done so as well.
Satie rubbed the tip of her nose. “They often take on humanoid or bestial forms, but... For instance, the one Char mentioned—I’ve known some to look like gemstones, or others, liquids, like that sword of that rabbit-eared templar at the capital.”
“What happens to the consciousness of the demon itself once it’s in a solid form like a ring?”
“I couldn’t tell you. They instinctively want to return to Solomon, so...maybe the ones in other forms are just asleep, their consciousness remaining deep within. But for the successful human trials, maybe even those deeper thoughts all go away... That might be why the presence of the demon completely vanishes.”
“So they’re completely reborn as humans then?” Percival asked.
Satie nodded. “Yes, I think so. As for how they’re conceived...there are various ways, apparently. But demons are magic-based life-forms, so they can be controlled to a certain degree through spell sequences. Meaning, once the demon is within the test subject’s body, you can overwrite it with a sequence to have it dwell within as a baby. I didn’t even notice when it happened to me. Maybe they mixed a liquid demon into something I ate...”
“Which means Schwartz and his cohorts discovered some way to control demons with magic, to an extent.”
“Correct. That’s how they could keep a number of demons around in dormant crystal forms. I presume the other organizations trying to use the demons knew about those methods too. Kasim, you were part of one of them, right?”
“Yeah, I was. But it was like Schwartz was always a step ahead,” said Kasim.